8/3/2019 2011.01.12 - Advocacy Letter - Deny Internet Over Regulation

1/2

January 9,2012Dear Senator Levin,As you might have seen in the news recently, there is a growing debate in Washington, D.C. over the StopOnline Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). Human rights organizations, technologycompanies, consumer rights groups, First Amendment scholars and many others have raised serious concernswith the with the legislation's effect on free speech, innovation and our economy. But one issue of particularimportance that I want to bring to your attention is the negative unintended consequences the bill will haveon our national and cyber security. ISupporters of SOPA and PIPA say the Domain Name System (DNS) blocking technique the legislationwould employ only targets "rogue," foreign sites. However, leading security experts including Stewart Baker, ahighly respected former top official with the Debartment of Homeland Security and the National SecurityAgency and Dr. Leonard Napolitano, Director df the Center for Computer Sciences and InformationTechnologies at Sandia National Laboratories, have stated the 'DNS blocking' tactic will be ineffective againstskilled online pirates.

DNS blocking blocks a site's domain name from showing up on a server, but does not remove the site fromthe Internet. However, this can be easily evaded by using a foreign DNS Server outside of the bill'sjurisdiction. A report by the Brookings Institute stated that evading DNS blocking by using a foreign serverrequires only minimal computer expertise.Using an unsecure server will open up entire networks to malware, spyware or other viruses, puttingeveryone-not just the teenager trying to download a free song or the site selling pirated shoes-at risk. Dr.Napolitano has also said SOP A and PIPA would only encourage offending websites to resort to low-cost waysaround the system.DNS filtering also runs in direct contradiction to the DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC), which was acritical update to the DNS and that has been a cyber security priority of the US since 2003. According toStewart Baker, by breaking the consensus around DNSSEC, SOPA will ruin years of work done by theDepartment of Homeland Security to establish a standard set of Internet rules.Over the past two years alone, Chinese hackers (most sponsored by the Chinese government itself) havebroken into such U.S. companies as McAfee, Gbogle, Adobe Systems and Northrop Grumman-and theseare just the instances we know about. With technology improving and advancing every day, do we really wantto make it even easier for China to steal our military and private sector data?Th . b 1 h , L . irh d . America' . al .ere IS a etter way to stem on me copyng t 11llnngement WI out en angenng enca s nation secunty.Requiring payment processors and advertising networks to cease the lllOney flow to foreign illegal sites willshut down those sites without creating security problems. I urge you to oppose both SOPA and PIPA in orderto not jeopardize our national and cyber security for legislation that won't effectively stop online copyrightinfringement.

8/3/2019 2011.01.12 - Advocacy Letter - Deny Internet Over Regulation

2/2

January 9,2012Dear Senator Stabenow,AI; you might have seen in the news recently, there is a growing debate in Washington, D.C. over the StopOnline Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). Human rights organizations, technologycompanies, consumer rights groups, First Amendment scholars and many others have raised serious concernswith the with the legislation's effect on free speech, innovation and our economy. But one issue of particularimportance that I want to bring to your attention is the negative unintended consequences the bill will haveon our national and cyber security. ISupporters of SOPA and PIPA say the Domain ~ame System CONS) blocking technique the legislationwould employ only targets "rogue," foreign sites. However, leading security experts including Stewart Baker, ahighly respected former top official with the Department of Homeland Security and the National SecurityAgency and Dr. Leonard Napolitano, Director of the Center for Computer Sciences and InformationTechnologies at Sandia National Laboratories, have stated the 'DNS blocking' tactic will be ineffective againstskilled online pirates.DNS blocking blocks a site's domain name from showing up on a server, but does not remove the site fromthe Internet. However, this can be easily evaded by using a foreign DNS Server outside of the bill'sjurisdiction. A report by the Brookings Institute stated that evading DNS blocking by using a foreign serverrequires only minimal computer expertise.Using an unsecure server will open up entire networks to malware, spyware or other viruses, puttingeveryone-not just the teenager trying to download a free song or the site selling pirated shoes-at risk. Dr.Napolitano has also said SOPA and PIPA woul~ only encourage offending websites to resort to low-cost waysaround the system. IDNS filtering also runs in direct contradiction to the DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC), which was acritical update to the DNS and that has been a tber security priority of the US since 2003. According toStewart Baker, by breaking the consensus around DNSSEC, SOP A will ruin years of work done by theDepartment of Homeland Security to establish a standard set of Internet rules.Over the past two years alone, Chinese hackers (most sponsored by the Chinese government itself) havebroken into such U.S. companies as McAfee, Google, Adobe Systems and Northrop Grumman-and theseare just the instances we know about. With technology improving and advancing every day, do we really wantto make it even easier for China to steal our military and private sector data?There is a better way to stem online copyright ilfringement without endangering America's national security.Requiring payment processors and advertising networks to cease the money flow to foreign illegal sites willshut down those sites without creating security problems. I urge you to oppose both SOPA and PIPA in orderto not jeopardize our national and cyber security for legislation that won't effectively stop online copyrightinfringement.